NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 36.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $96,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in NetApp by 82.9% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 59.3% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

NetApp Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $127.64 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $130.87. The stock has a market cap of $26.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.51, a PEG ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $112.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.02.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.10%.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.